Rent an apartment in Europe. Rent apartments in Europe on Airbnb. Effective ways to find apartments abroad

I have collected in one place links to all sites for booking travel accommodation that I know of. Here you will find out how easy it is to spend the night in almost any city in the world at an affordable price or even for free! Or really find unusual place, a stay in which will be remembered for a long time.

The post contains the largest database of hostels in the world, the largest service for renting accommodation from hosts, sites for booking unusual designer hotels, overnight accommodation in exchange for help around the house or looking after a pet - in general, options for every taste. Choose!

Classic: hotel aggregator sites

Personally, I open these sites first when I'm going on a trip somewhere. As the name implies, they combine information from various booking systems, such as: booking, hotels, ostrovok (one of best prices in Russia), agoda (good for traveling in Asia), trivago, expedia and many others.

Aggregators compare prices, look for discounts and special offers, where you can find not only hotels, but also hostels, guest houses- it’s very convenient to have everything in one place.

Read also:

Free overnight stay

The best way to understand a country and its people is to get to know local residents, and even better, live with them for a while. International hospitality sites provide such opportunities when people invite guests to their home. Just don’t see them as just a free overnight stay, rather it’s a cultural exchange, interesting communication, an opportunity to improve your languages ​​and find new friends around the world.

Source: instagram: @myinterior

Accommodation in exchange for housework

These sites should not be considered only as a way to stay overnight for free, but as a new unusual experience and an opportunity to help people and the ecology of the planet for a week, a month, or maybe more. The idea is that you work several hours a day, and in return you receive room and board.

Source: GettyImages

Rental services for cool and unusual hotels

If you want to live in a lighthouse, in a tree house, stay in eco-friendly hotels or hotels only for vegetarians, try glamping (glamorous camping) or just have fun, then there are special sites for this.

✔ and - here you can buy someone else’s reservation at a discount. Someone couldn’t go and is selling their reservation on the website. You get a good discount, and the person gets money for a non-refundable room.

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Renting apartments in Europe

The website for renting apartments and apartments is called Airbnb
How does it differ from the traditional online housing booking system that I wrote about earlier ()?

Firstly, the site specializes only in apartments and apartments.
Secondly, on the site you can rent an apartment or apartment for a long period (more than 30 days).
Booking.com has a limited booking period of 30 days.

This opportunity is important for those who, for example, decided to go on their own or send their children with their grandmother to the sea for the summer.
Or for those who are planning to go to give birth in the USA (on a tourist visa you can stay in the USA for 3 months and, as a rule, this is enough for the child to obtain US citizenship).

I described the process of searching, selecting and booking the found option on AirBnb in sufficient detail in my previous articles:

Here I’ll just give a couple of direct links to popular destinations:


Accommodation reservation

Once you have decided and the apartment or apartment is available for rent during the period of time you specified, proceed to booking.
Be sure to read the rental terms and conditions carefully.


Keep in mind that Additional services cost money (this is written on the website) and their cost will be added to the final price
The final cleaning of the apartment or villa and laundry are also paid additionally (sometimes it comes as a separate line)

After filling in your details, go to the payment page.
This is probably the most interesting thing. After all, you don’t want to part with your money... Yes, I understand. When communism comes, we will go on vacation for free.

If there are more than 45 days left before arrival, to confirm the reservation it is enough to make a prepayment of 30% of the cost of accommodation, and the remaining amount must be paid 1.5 months before the date of arrival.

Payment is accepted by bank cards Visa, MasterCard and bank transfer is also possible. But I hope that a credit card is better than paying an extra 50 euros for a bank transfer.

Airbnb Visa Confirmation

Many people are also interested in the question of whether the booking confirmation is valid. apartments or flats to obtain a Schengen visa on your own?

Hotel accommodation is often an unaffordable luxury for a student who has decided to study abroad. Moreover, not every university has dormitories and apartments at its disposal to accommodate foreigners. And the only way out in this case is rent an apartment or room in the country of study.
In fact, everything is not as dramatic as it might seem at first glance. Perhaps, living in a university dormitory would be cheaper, but the option of renting private housing is much more profitable than staying in a hotel. We have selected several effective ways to find inexpensive and comfortable housing abroad, which you can read about below.

Housing search services abroad

ResourceOffersCountriesPeculiarity
2,000,000 191 Online platform for searching short-term rentals of private housing around the world
7,000,000 246 One of the largest guest networks for finding free accommodation and new experiences abroad
80,000 200 An online service that allows you to rent city apartments, rooms and even small private houses for a couple of days
1,000,000 190 An online platform that allows you to rent a private room, apartment or exotic villa for the price of a hotel room
26,000 170 The service offers a search for hostels, inexpensive hotels and B&B's (bed and breakfast)
33,000 170 A site for searching inexpensive hostels around the world, which, if any difficulties arise with checking into the hostel, will return the money and pay an additional 50 USD
4,000,000 180 A free classifieds site where you can successfully find housing, furniture and even a car

Effective ways to find apartments abroad

  • Using housing search and booking systems
    • You can turn to specialized sites, of which there are many on the Internet. On such resources you can find advertisements for renting small rooms, apartments and even entire houses. It is important to understand that rental prices on different sites may not be the same. Therefore, even having met interesting offer, it is worth checking for similar offers on other sites.
    It's interesting what some services offer discount coupons for using their services. For example, the online platform Airbnb gives 25 USD, which can be used on your next accommodation booking. The main advantage of such services is the ability to find the most interesting accommodation options that reflect the local flavor, which cannot be found in boring hotel rooms.
  • Search by hostels
    • Staying in a hostel may seem like a good idea if an applicant is staying in a new city for just a couple of days (or a week) to take university entrance tests. You can find decent deals through hotel booking systems or special services like hostelworld. A hostel is not always a typical hostel with concrete walls and the feeling of an ordinary communal apartment. There are quite decent places, beautiful historical buildings with a convenient location and the presence of separate rooms and even amenities. The only question is the price.
  • Finding accommodation through hospitality sites
    • Couchsurfing allows travelers to save on accommodation in new country, meet new people, exchange customs and traditions. Hospitality sites are pushing the envelope by giving everyday people the opportunity to get free shelter for a few days and have fun with new people they know. All you need to do is register on one of these services, fill out your form there, upload good photo and tell about yourself. The main thing is to be open and friendly, and then you won’t have to wait long for invitations from other couchsurfers.

    What should you consider when looking for an apartment?

    Before you book and pay for your chosen room or apartment, you should consider several nuances:
  • Surcharge
    • The full price is not always displayed on the accommodation booking website apartment rental, therefore, when meeting with the landlord, the client can expect a real “surprise” in the form of a tax levied on the tenant. To avoid getting into such a situation, you should contact the owner of the apartment in advance and clarify all the details before making the transaction.
  • Reviews from other users
    • If an apartment is found on one of the special sites, it is logical that there are reviews from other users who have already visited this landlord. On the pages of the service, descriptions and photos can highlight a home from a favorable perspective, but in reality, everything often turns out to be much more prosaic. That is why you should carefully read the reviews of other users, if there are many of them and they are all positive, in this case you can rent the selected apartment without fear or doubt.
  • Additional services
    • Before concluding a deal, you should double-check whether additional services (daily cleaning, Internet access, breakfast, change of towels and linen, toiletries) are included in the total cost of renting the apartment. These services may have to be paid for separately, and more information may be found on the website. profitable offer at the same price.
  • Advantageous location
    • An affordable apartment may be located far from the center, so you will still have to spend money on travel to public transport. Isn't it easier right away? rent housing closer to the center (as a rule, the price differs by 5 USD -10), so as not to waste time and nerves getting from the outskirts of the city?
  • Payment Methods
    • To rent apartments using specialized services, you will need a credit card, not a debit card. Otherwise, you may lose your reservation just a week before your expected check-in.
  • Availability of a security deposit
    • On many apartment booking services you can find a similar clause that obliges the client to have a certain amount of deposit on his credit card in case the property of the apartment owner is damaged. This money is simply frozen in the tenant's account, and after eviction it becomes available again to the card holder.

    How is the process of renting a home abroad different?

    If you need to rent housing abroad, you need to understand in advance what lies behind this process. Many nuances apartment rentals differ significantly from those that exist in the CIS countries. What you should know when renting housing abroad:
    • Signing the contract. IN European countries This is an absolutely normal practice, since the landlord and tenant are protected by law and in case of any disagreement, the dispute is regulated by contract. In the CIS countries, it is not often possible to meet a landlord who wants to register his activities and pay taxes on them to the state treasury, so the tenant remains completely unprotected, because agreements are made verbally.
    • For long-term apartment rental The real estate agent's commission is paid by the landlord;
    • Damage to property. If you want to rent an apartment with furniture, you need to be quite scrupulous about their safety, since damage to the property of the apartment owner can become a real reason for premature eviction.
    • Interestingly, in some countries There is no ban on keeping pets in rented housing, even if it is stated in the contract. Therefore, it is important to know your rights and be able to defend them.
    • Long rental period. In some European countries (Germany, France), the rental period starts at two years, due to the fact that in this way the tenant demonstrates his seriousness and solvency.
    • Tenant protection. If the tenant has a signed contract in his hands, it is almost impossible to evict him from the apartment ahead of schedule (unless there are serious violations), and nothing can be done with the housing during this period (sell or rent to someone else);
    • The need to pay an initial deposit. The tenant must pay the landlord a starting deposit, which is equal to a maximum of three months rents(utility payments are not included in this amount).
    • Providing documents and personal data. The tenant is obliged to provide the landlord with all the necessary information about himself: passport data, personal profile, income certificate, as well as recommendations from previous landlords (if any).

    How to avoid falling for scammers?

    Apartments for rent was and remains one of the most profitable forms of business. There are many lovers of easy money working in this industry who know how to extract money from a client. Therefore, it is important to know a few rules that will help protect against scammers:
  • Signing an official agreement
    • There are known cases when scammers rented apartments for a couple of days, during this period they found people willing to rent housing on a long-term basis, signed an agreement with them (which has no legal force), took an advance payment and disappeared from view forever. The contract must be concluded only with a notary or lawyer; the form must have a wet stamp.
  • Checking the landlord's profile
    • When booking housing through booking services, you need to carefully review the profile of the apartment owner, and also contact him to clarify the amount of payment, check-in date and other details. If the advertisement is in doubt, you should ask the interlocutor to provide additional photographs of the apartment.
  • Payment for apartment rent through trusted sites
    • Payment should be made only through the booking service website, even if the owner of the apartment asks to transfer money to his personal account. It’s better to pay a commission to the site than to lose funds from your bank card.
  • Data privacy
    • You should not disclose your payment card information to third parties (card number, CVV code, PIN code) and other information.
    If you want to rent a home abroad on a long-term basis, you should be prepared to pay an amount of several monthly installments, which is quite a lot. As for short-term rental of apartments (from 3 days to 2 weeks), in this case it is also necessary to have a starting deposit, which will guarantee the solvency and careful attitude of the tenant to the property of the host party.

    How to rent an apartment or apartment in another area, city or country directly from the owner, without intermediaries?

    How to rent housing so that when you send money - a deposit or an advance payment - you do not lose it... - that is, have firm guarantees in this regard that the owners will not deceive you and will not slip you a bed in a hostel instead of an apartment.


    There is such a service - Airbnb
    The invention is American, but due to its great popularity it has conquered the whole world. Therefore, it is suitable for those who are going on a business trip to Penza, and for those who are going on vacation with their family to the coast of Spain.

    I personally rented an apartment in the center of Moscow through this service when in my own apartment renovation was underway...
    If you are going to rent for a period of more than a week, then the prices are cheaper than a week's stay in a hotel.

    Yes, you yourself can play with directions and dates: go to the AirBnb website, select the city and check-in/out dates and press search

    How does this booking system work?

    You look at the housing options offered to you for the requested dates and, having selected the options you like based on photographs, configuration and price, you begin to carefully consider them


    Look at the photographs and although they are not true - after all, they can be retouched by painting over a hole burned by a cigarette butt in the upholstery of a sofa or by adding a missing leg to a chair in Photoshop - you will get a certain picture of the apartment you want to photograph.

    Hosts

    After that, move on to the host persona. Check it out photo, look reviews about the apartment from other renters who lived here before you. Look Contact details owner - he has accounts in social networks? This is good - it means he is not hiding himself and probably pays taxes.


    You can contact the owner through a special feedback form. Ask questions. For example, “where do the windows go” or “can I bring a small dog with me.”

    Rent terms

    If everything suits you, carefully read the rental conditions and canceling the reservation of this apartment is very important.
    The apartment rental price may not include final cleaning, and also be sure to take security deposit. As a rule, it is equal to the cost of one day of accommodation and it will be returned to you in exchange for the keys upon departure.


    Having clarified all the questions and finally decided for myself: I’ll take it! - go to the booking page, where you will be asked to enter your data and plastic card details, from which the cost of renting an apartment for the period you requested will be debited 100%.

    Payment for rent

    But the money does not immediately go to the owner. No. He will receive them only on the second day of your stay in rented apartment, because if you arrive and discover that the photographs you saw of the apartment are photographs of a completely different apartment or that this apartment does not correspond to the description on the Internet, you must contact the AirBnb support service so that they can immediately offer you a similar option for less money ( bonus for moral damages), or your prepayment was returned.

    In turn, the owner of the apartment is interested in you liking the apartment, since he does not receive money for rent immediately, but only after you inspect it, that is, on the second day. As you can see, the system takes into account the interests of the tenant and guarantees him against deception.

    And one more thing: be sure to read: there people share their experiences in renting housing all over the world through AirBnb, warn if you need to warn, and also leave reviews about good options the housing they rented.